Word of Salvation – Vol. 43 No. 34 – September 1998

 

Blessed Are Those Who Are Persecuted…!

 

Sermon by Rev. J. W. Westendorp on Matthew 5:10-12

Scripture Readings: Hebrews 10:32-39; John 15:18-25; Matthew 5:1-12

Suggested Hymns: BoW 313; 139a; 394; 374

 

Introd:            This morning we are dealing with the eighth and the last of the beatitudes.

It’s the only one to which Jesus added some special words of explanation.
Perhaps that’s because this is such a solemn and serious beatitude.
Our Lord wants to make sure that we don’t misunderstand His words.

This last beatitude deals with the persecution of Christians.
We don’t really like to think about that too much, do we?
We read of it a moment ago, in Hebrews 10:
            Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution.
            You joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property.
At the end of Hebrews 11 the situation is even more grim:
            Some were flogged… others chained and put in prison…
            They were stoned to death… sawed in two… killed by the sword.

It’s a frightening picture that sends cold chills down our spine.
Our thoughts go to Stephen, the deacon, who was stoned to death in Acts 7.
Or we think of other martyrs in the history of the Christian church.
Polycarp… John Hus… William Tyndale, strangled and burned at the stake.

Or we think of more recent martyrs, persecuted for their faith.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer… liquidated in a Nazi concentration camp.
Richard Wurmbrand… tortured for his faith by the communists in Russia.  Pastor Yun in China.
            And then we sincerely hope we won’t have to experience the blessing of this beatitude.

 

A]        THE BLESSING OF THE PERSECUTED.

1.         Actually this beatitude puts us into a rather strange situation.

We send our congratulations to people on their birthdays and on wedding anniversaries.

But shouldn’t we then really also send our congratulations to those who are persecuted…?

Maybe we could even make up special cards called “Happy persecution” cards.
Inside there could be the message: Congratulations with your persecution…!
Or perhaps: May you have a joyful time being slandered, abused and mocked.

I can imagine some of you saying: “John, this is too serious to joke about.”
Sarcasm and satire are not at all appropriate in the face of persecution.
After all we are talking about the persecution of our Christian brothers and sisters… also today.

Well, let me assure you that I am not joking and I am not being sarcastic.
I’m simply highlighting what Jesus says: Blessed are those who are persecuted…!  Blessed…!
            IOW: They are to be envied who are the victims of hate and violence.
            Truly happy, everlastingly happy are such people.

Often we just read over these beatitudes without realising just how controversial Jesus really is.
These sayings of Jesus are radical.
All of them… but perhaps this one especially.
It’s only as we put it into modern day terms that we realise just how controversial they are.
Jesus actually says something like: Congratulations with your persecutions!

Do your workmates hassle you because you’re a believer?  Congratulations!

Does the boss discriminate against you because you’re a Christian?  Felicitations!

Do your neighbours make life difficult because you’ve told them of your faith?  Happy are you!

 

2.         I want to point out especially that Jesus is also saying this to us.

This is not just a word for the martyrs of long ago.

Nor is it just a word of encouragement to Christians in Iraq… and Iran… or in Saudia Arabia.

This isn’t just a message for Christians in China who have no freedom to worship as they wish.

Jesus is speaking to you and to me right here and now in… (date and place).
Because… remember… I have stressed one thing throughout these studies on the beatitudes.
These sayings are a description of the believer.
It is the Christian who is meek… it’s the believer who is merciful… who is poor in spirit.
            To a greater or lesser extent these things are true of every believer in Jesus.
            It is the Christian who is the peacemaker… and it is also the Christian who is persecuted.
            Here once again Jesus is describing those who are members of His Kingdom.

However we should also notice a difference now in this beatitude.
The first seven beatitudes emphasised what the Christian is.
The believer is meek… she is merciful… he is pure in heart.
Here we are now shown what happens to those people who are like that.

So this eighth beatitude is a kind of logical conclusion to all the others.
Jesus began by saying: This is what a Christian is like… or ought to be like.
He is different from the world in these seven ways.
And now because off that… this is what happens to him: He is persecuted.

The world itself agrees the Christian is different… and it proves he is different by persecuting him.
So the Christian sows peace… and righteousness… and mercy.
But what he reaps as a result of that is abuse and persecution.

 

3.         I can imagine some of you thinking: This is all a little unreal when applied to us here in Australia/New Zealand.

It’s too dramatic.  You couldn’t become a martyr here in our country even if you wanted to be one.

It’s okay to apply this to China and the Sudan… to some countries in the Middle East… but not us.

Fine… okay, but let’s remember that persecution takes many different forms.

*         What happens (for e.g.) to a Christian who is expected to work on weekends?
But he refuses to do unnecessary work on Sundays so that he can worship and rest.
And because of that he is repeatedly bypassed for promotion.

*         What happens to a young Christian who tells her coach she won’t play sport on Sunday?
She takes a stand that Sunday is not first for sport but for the Lord.
But then she finds she is not selected to play with the team on Saturday either.

*         What about the Christian who believes his boss is playing dirty in business?
So he speaks out for justice for the customer who is being ripped off.
But he loses his job as a result… and spends years on social security.

Persecution takes many forms: victimisation… mockery… being put down by others.
And if we have never experienced persecution in any form at all….
            then we ought to question whether our Christian testimony is what it ought to be.
Jesus said that as the world hated Him it would also hate us.

In the explanation to this beatitude Jesus shows some of the forms that persecution takes.
He speaks about people insulting us… and saying evil against us.
And who of us who has stood up for his faith doesn’t know something of that?
   Mockery and character assassination… being branded as narrow-minded party poopers.
            Simply because we speak out against abortion or euthanasia or for godly principles.
   We are laughed at as ‘Holy Joes’… because we are still quaint enough to be religious.
Jesus implies that persecution is part and parcel of Christianity in an ungodly world.

 

B]        THE REASON FOR SUCH PERSECUTION.

1.         Let me also add that Jesus does not bless all persecution as such.

He does not say: Blessed are those who are persecuted….  full stop…!
As if all persecution is automatically pleasing to Him.

A great deal of persecution happens for the wrong reasons… sometimes it is political.

Often the cults and sects have been persecuted because of their extreme views and practices.
Do you remember David Koresh and his cult at Waco, Texas?
Or think of the persecution of the Mormon church in its early years for their practice of bigamy.

And it’s even true of ourselves… persecution can be for the wrong reasons.
Jesus does not say: Blessed are those who are persecuted because they are blunt and tactless.
Nor does He say: Blessed are those persecuted because of their own hot-headedness.

Turn a moment to a few verses in I Peter 4.
Peter shows us that our suffering must be for the right reasons.
That there is no blessing in it when I am abused or slandered for my own stupidity.
<<< READ  I Pet. 4:15 & 16 >>>
            IOW: we may not use this beatitude to comfort ourselves in a wrong way…
                        when the teacher or the boss has it in for us because we messed up.

Let me put it this way:  we may not separate this last beatitude from all the others.

We may only apply this last beatitude for ourselves if we are also prepared to apply the other seven.

If we are persecuted for being Christians… as people who are meek… merciful… peacemakers…
Or as Peter says:  If you are insulted because of the name of Christ…. (vss 14,16)
Then you are blessed…!  Only then does this beatitude apply to you.

 

2.         The point is that Jesus does not just say: “Blessed are those who are persecuted.”

He adds those important words: For the sake of righteousness.

Earlier Jesus pronounced a blessing on those who hunger and thirst for it.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…  those who long for it.
Now He pronounces a blessing on those who suffer for putting it into practice.

Does that seem strange to you… that Christians are persecuted for the sake of righteousness?
Isn’t righteousness a general concern all around us?
The world shuddered at the unrighteousness of Hitler and Pol Pot’s regimes… and of Rwanda.
Doesn’t everyone want a righteous society?
            Sadly, we have to say, “No!”
            People just don’t want life to become too excessively unrighteous… too lawless!
                        But we want to hang on to our right to sleep around… or walk out of a marriage.
                        The right to make a quick buck at someone else’s expense… or evade our taxes.

Why does the world persecute the Christian?  Why do unbelievers often slander believers?
Is it not because our standard of righteousness (God’s standard) is too strict for them?
The Christian is always there as a threat to the world’s sinful fun and games.
            Old Herod the king was having a great time fooling around with his brother’s wife.
            That is… until John the Baptist… a messenger of righteousness… said to Herod:
                        Herod, what you’re doing isn’t kosher… it is unrighteous.
            And for that John the Baptist lost his head… persecuted for righteousness.

Christians are the conscience of our society… or, at least, we ought to be.
And when we are that… then we also find opposition increases.  We’re called “God botherers”.
We are a constants reminder of what other people ought to be.
So often those who laugh loudest at our faith are the ones whose conscience is most troubled.

 

3.         Of course I’m not saying that we are always such perfect examples of righteousness.

We’re very imperfect in holding to righteousness…. we have many failings.

We Christians have even been guilty of persecuting others….
so that instead of being the persecuted ones… we have, at times, done the persecuting.
            It is an ongoing struggle for us to live up to the beatitudes.

So it is important for us to remember that other way of looking at the beatitudes.
Not only are they a picture of the believer… a snapshot of the Christian.
They are above all a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the one who was meek and merciful… He was pure in heart and the Great Peacemaker.
He was also the one who hungered and thirsted for righteousness.

So all of this somehow has to centre on Jesus Christ.

Our living by the beatitudes is an identifying with Him.

That’s also why Jesus talks about “people saying all kinds of evil against you because of me”.
As we live out the beatitudes we identify with Jesus.
And then our persecution for righteousness is a persecution for His sake.

In fact by being slandered and mocked we are again identifying with Jesus.
As He lived the life shown in the beatitudes… He too was slandered and abused.
He sowed peace… and mercy and goodness… but he reaped a cross and an agonising death.

So there is a total identifying with Jesus.
Not only identifying with Him in His righteousness… but also with Him in His sufferings.
Our persecution is blessed as we stand with Jesus… as we identify with Him.
Then it is not really us that the world opposes… but it opposes Christ in us.

 

C]        THE REJOICING OF THE PERSECUTED.

1.         In this beatitude Jesus also tells us what our attitude to persecution ought to be.

How do you face up to it when someone makes life tough for you as a Christian?

How do you cope when someone gives you a hard time for going to church.

Here again Jesus’ standards are far different from ours.

Jesus doesn’t say: When you are persecuted or slandered, just grin and bear it.
He doesn’t tell us that we should just put up with it as best as possible.
Instead He tells us that persecution should be a reason for joy for us.
            In such situations, says Jesus, “rejoice and be glad”.
            Not even just ‘rejoice’… he gives it a double emphasis, ‘rejoice AND be glad’.

Do you see why a “Happy persecution card” is not so far off the mark after all…?
Because Jesus strikes a keynote of happiness at this point!
            In fact that brings us back some ways to the idea of being “BLESSED”.
            Blessed are the persecuted…. Happy are they….!  Eternally happy!

This is something that has never made sense to the world around us.
How on earth could Christians sing in a Roman arena while facing hungry lions?
How could Paul and Silas, in Acts 16, sing hymns in prison with their feet in stocks?
How can persecuted Christians sing in modern concentration camps?

Turn with me to Acts 5 where we have one of the clearest examples of joy in persecution.
The disciples received a beating for speaking about Jesus.  How did they respond to that?
Not with sadness…!  They didn’t go into spiritual depression over it.  No, there was joy.
<<< READ ACTS 5:40, 41 >>>
Their joy was a further witness to the gospel.
Actually their joy was not for persecution itself but for 2 other reasons that our text teaches us.

 

2.         One of the reasons for joy in Christian persecution is that it is for Christ’s sake.

IOW: persecution tells us something about where we are standing as Christians.
When we are mocked or ridiculed it reminds us where we are at… as believers.
Or, if you like, persecution tells you what you are… it answers the question: Who am I really?
It assures us of our identification with the Lord Jesus Christ in His persecution.

In the process it also links us to others who identified with Jesus.

When we share in the sufferings of Jesus by being rubbished and slandered
then we also stand in a long line of people who were ridiculed and abused for Jesus’ sake.
Jesus says:
        Rejoice and be glad for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Jesus is saying that persecution sets us in a great tradition of the great saints of God.

When your workmates slander you for your Christian convictions…
then you stand with Daniel… thrown into the lions den for his faith.

When you are deprived of promotion or some other way discriminated against for your faith
then you stand in the same tradition as Paul in the prison in Philippi.

IOW: insults and victimisation because of our Christian faith…. hardship for our beliefs…
are the great proof that we are standing with Christ and with the saints of God….
            that we belong to that special category of people…
Those who are mentioned in Hebrews 11:
            They were strangers and exiles on the earth of whom the world was not worthy.

Rejoice and be glad because in your persecution there is an indication of who you are.

 

3.         But then Jesus also gives one other reason why oppression ought to make us glad.

Often when people take it out on us and discriminate against us we don’t see the big picture.
We see that promotion that we hoped for pass us by.
We see the overtime money slip away because we wouldn’t work on the Sunday.
We watch someone else take our place on the sport’s team.

Jesus says, Okay that’s persecution… but it’s only the short term effect of taking a stand for me.
There’s a bigger picture… don’t lose sight of that.
            Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.

Or as He says in the beatitude itself: For theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

IOW: Persecution not only makes me realise where I stand…  what I am.
It also makes me realise where I am going… and what awaits me yet.

Jesus holds out to you the reminder of a reward – a share in the Kingdom.
One day you will share in the full glory of the perfect Kingdom of God.
Now you suffer with Jesus… then you will reign with Him in His glory.

So when the world mocks me and insults my beliefs… when it abuses me for my faith
then it is not only reminding me that I don’t belong… that I am out of place…
that I am a pilgrim… a stranger and exile here…
            but then it indirectly also reminds me of my glorious future in God’s Kingdom.

Today it is tempting for us to play down our faith… to ignore the beatitudes and go along with the world.
This week you’ll be tempted to tone down your witness so that they won’t give you a hard time.
Don’t!
Because every insult for the cause of Christ is a reminder of the reward to come.
            Every loss and discrimination for your faith is a reminder of the glory yet awaiting you.
            Your reward!  All the riches of Christ in a wonderful world that will never, never end.

Amen.